Here are some great handmade gifts you can make for your family, spouse, friends, or kids to say "I love you". These crafts and treats are a great way to show your love, whether it's for a birthday, holiday, or just because!

1. Strawberry Roses

These strawberry roses are very creative and would make for a great centerpiece or garnish!

Ingredients:

Large fresh strawberries

Lollipop sticks or plastic rose stems

Small sharp paring knife

Directions:

Place each strawberry on a skewer or craft stick. The stick will allow you to hold the berry with one hand and carve with the other hand. Push strawberry through the stick, stem side down. The flower will come from the bottom of the berry so make sure you remove the actual stem (if there is one present) and then gently push the bottom through the stick.

Create the outer petals. Make four cuts toward the bottom of the strawberry. The cuts should encircle the bottom of the fruit and be driven down toward the green stem area. Do not cut the strawberry away or remove any part of it.

Work upward on the the strawberry, adding new rose/flower petals. Continue with making three or four downward cuts into the berry, working your way around the perimeter until you get to the top.

Drive your knife downward, only a slightly through the top of the berry to create the final petals.

Repeat until you have the desired number of strawberry roses!

2. Hidden Hearts Pound Cake

Give your friends and family a fun and loving surprise in every slice of this pound cake! Everyone will be asking, "How'd you do that?"

Ingredients:

2 (16 ounce) boxes Betty Crocker Pound Cake mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided, softened

4 eggs, divided

1 1/3 cups milk, divided

red food coloring

Vanilla Icing:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon unsalted butter, melted

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9×5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Prepare your first pound cake: combine 1 box of cake mix, 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter, 2 eggs, and 2/3 cup milk in a large bowl. Whisk together with an electric mixer or by hand. Add in your food coloring until you reach the desired color (I think I used 25 drops.)

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 8-10 minutes less than instructed on box (about 50 minutes.) Let cool, remove from pan and refrigerate for up to 4 hours. Cut cold cake into slices the thickness of your cookie cutter. Cut heart shapes from the slices. Set aside.

Prepare your second box of pound cake mix the same as the first, except omit the food coloring. Coat a 9×5 loaf pan with cooking spray and pour just barely enough batter to cover the bottom. Align your heart cut-outs down the center, keeping them tightly together. Poor the remaining batter over the heart cut-outs in the pan, making sure to cover the sides and tops. (Careful the batter doesn’t overflow.) Bake according to the directions on the box, about 1 hour. Let cool when done.

Meanwhile, prepare your icing. In a medium bowl, mix all of your ingredients together until combined and creamy. Add more powdered sugar if it appears too runny or more milk if it seems too stiff, until you reach the consistency you like.

Remove baked and cooled pound cake from pan and top with icing. Let set; cut into slices and enjoy! Adorable, right!?

Pastel pink (or any color you want) Scrapbook Paper for the ribbon message

Instructions-

The base of the bubblegum machine was made from a small red paper cup. I placed a band around the cup where I needed to cut it. Then I traced around the band onto the cup to make a line to cut on. Then I just cut it out.

The little ornaments that I bought from Hobby Lobby (not a Christmas item- they were found by the glass jars) have a ring on the top. I punched a hole with my scissors in the bottom of the cup and placed the ornament (already filled with bubblegum) inside. I taped it on the inside to secure. (If you will be passing these out I would go ahead and place some tape to the seams to to make sure they don’t fly open!) Then I cut out a little heart in a metallic gray and a ribbon shape out of pink and wrote “I Chews You!” on it! SO fun!

Print the fortunes, cut them and fold them in two. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease (or use a silpat) two cookie sheets.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg whites, vanilla extract, almond extract and vegetable oil until frothy, but not stiff.

Sift the flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar into the egg mix. Add the water. Beat until you have a smooth batter. The batter should not be runny, but should drop easily off a wooden spoon.

Separate the batter in two. Dye one by adding two drop of red food coloring or enough to obtain the desired color.

The best is to do 2 cookies at a time because they harden very fast! Place level tablespoons of batter onto the cookie sheet, spacing them at least 3 inches apart. Gently tilt the baking sheet back and forth and from side to side so that each tablespoon of batter forms into a circle 4 inches in diameter. If you want to decorate the cookies as I did, now is the time.

To decorate: it’s mostly the same thing as decorating cookies with royal icing. For all sorts of techniques visit Karen’s cookies.

Bake until the outer 1/2-inch of each cookie turns golden brown and they are easy to remove from the baking sheet with a spatula (14 – 15 minutes).

For this part, look at the Youtube tutorial, it’s much easier to see how it’s done! Also, you should totally wear gloves so that you don’t burn your fingers. Working quickly, remove the cookie with a spatula and flip it over on your work surface. Place a fortune in the middle of a cookie. To form the fortune cookie shape, fold the cookie in half, then gently pull the edges downward over the rim of a glass, wooden spoon or the edge of a muffin tin. Place the finished cookie in the cup of the muffin tin so that it keeps its shape. Continue with the rest of the cookies.

How can you not smile when you take a look at layers and layers of pizza? While this might not be pink or in the shape of a heart, who wouldn't love a pizza cake! This would be great for party's, a festive dinner, or just because!

Measure diameter of tall-sided ovenproof pan. (Pan used was 6-inch in diameter with 4-inch high side.) Unroll 1 can of dough onto work surface; press out into thin layer. Cut out 3 (6-inch) rounds; place on cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack; cool.

Meanwhile, line pan with cooking parchment paper so that ends of paper stick up and out of pan. Cut long strip of dough at least 1/2 inch wider than height of pan. Carefully drape long strip of dough around inside edge of pan to line, leaving 1/2 inch hanging over outside edge of pan and bottom of pan open. Pinch seam to seal.

Carefully place 1 partially baked crust round in bottom of pan. Spread pizza sauce over crust; top with pepperoni slices and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese (when cheese melts, crust above will stick to it). Repeat to make 3 more layers. For top layer, place last crust over cheese; sprinkle with remaining cheese and arrange remaining pepperoni on top.

Fold overhanging dough over top layer of pizza cake to make a raised crust edge.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until dough around pizza cake is fully cooked. (To test, carefully pull up parchment paper to raise pizza cake out of pan.) Once completely baked, cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove pizza cake from pan; brush crust with butter. Use sharp knife to cut slices like you would a cake.